Eleven miners saved in China

ELEVEN workers trapped for two weeks inside a Chinese gold mine have been brought safely to the surface, a landmark achievement for an industry blighted by disasters and high death tolls.

State broadcaster CCTV showed workers being hauled up one by one in baskets yesterday afternoon, their eyes shielded to protect them after so many days in darkness.

Some brought their hands together in gratitude and many appeared almost too weak to stand. They were swiftly covered in coats in freezing temperatures and loaded into ambulances.

Hundreds of rescue workers and officials applauded as the workers were brought up from the mine in Qixia, in the eastern coastal province of Shandong.

One worker was reported to have died from a head wound after explosion deposited massive amounts of rubble in the shaft on January 10 while the mine was still under construction.

The fate of ten others who were underground at the time is unknown. Authorities have detained mine managers for delaying reporting the accident.

The cause of the accident is under investigation but the explosion was large enough to release 70 tons of debris that blocked the shaft, disabling elevators and trapping workers underground.